Seize the Day (1956)

Seize the Day left me in two minds. I really admire Saul Bellow's writing - in particular, his ability to create an amazingly detailed protagonist in so few words. But I can't ignore the fact that, for me, right now, this novel simply didn't work. I know there's something important going on in between these pages, but, for the time being, it's eluded me completely.

I'm shelving Seize the Day under "reread in a few years' time.

Read my full review on my blog, Book to the Future:

http://booktothefuture.com.au/?p=2506

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Powerful and intense novella. Bellow's wonderful flowery writing style and thorough exploration of life make this a wonder. ( )

Perhaps someone else has already said it, but there's very little art or artistry in this short story portrait of a man's life masquerading as a train wreck (or perhaps the other way around). In any case Bellow went on to do this many more times, and sometimes with more interesting results. I can forgive Bellow a lot, however, in return for his 'Henderson, The Rain King', and I'd have to say I'm often called upon to do so. Only recommended for those 'filling in the gaps' in their Bellow reading. ( )

Tamkin was a charlatan, and furthermore he was desperate. And furthermore, Wilhelm had always known it about him. But he appeared to have worked it out at the back of his mind that Tamkin for thirty or forty years had gotten though many a tight place, that he would get through this crisis too and bring him, Wilhelm, to safety also. And Wilhelm realized that he was on Tamkin's back. It made him feel that he had virtually left the ground and was riding upon the other man. He was in the air. It was for Tamkin to take the steps.

The story of a day in the life of a man who sees himself as having failed at life, on the day his precarious financial situation comes to a head. Having left his wife and children and given up his job, he is living in the same residential hotel as his widowed father, who is entirely unsympathetic to his plight.

Tommy Wilhelm's life has been one long series of bad decisions, starting with leaving university for Hollywood even though the agent who gave him a screen test was discouraging about his chances. He never seizes the day, but passively waits and hopes for someone, whether his father or Dr. Tamkin, to save him from himself. ( )

Seize the Day was published in 1956. It was Saul Bellow's fourth novel. It is often considered to be one of the great works of 20th century literature.

The novel’s protagonist is Tommy Wilhelm. Unemployed and lonely, Wilhelm is looking for success and a little sympathy. The story explores one day of his life as he tries to reconnect with the world and recover his lost dignity.

The mood of the story is dark and dismal. There is a kind of a hellish quality to Wilhelm’s world. Even before the story really begins we are already feeling his desperation,

“Oh, God,” Wilhelm prayed, “Let me out of my trouble. Let me out of my thoughts, and let me do something better with myself. For all the time I have wasted I am very sorry. Let me out of this clutch and into a different life. For I am all balled up. Have mercy.”

For the most part, Wilhelm considers himself to be a victim. He expects his father to sympathize with him. He views the obviously fraudulent Dr. Tamkin as a surrogate father and clings to him. He constantly blames everyone else, his father, his agent, his wife, his boss, even the world around him for the quagmire that is his life.

There are only three main characters that are ‘visible’ throughout the book, Tommy Wilhelm, his father Dr. Adler and Dr. Tamkin.

Wilhelm is immature. He is gullible. In many ways he is still more of a boy than a man.

His father, Dr. Adler, seen through Wilhelm’s eyes seems like a heard headed, unsympathetic and selfish man. But I felt that a lot of his harshness comes from Wilhelm’s distorted view of his father. It is true that Dr. Adler sees making money as the ultimate success and does not want to help his children financially. But that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person. He just wants his children to grow up and not be dependent on him anymore. Sure, he is cold and even cruel at times but he is not what his son makes him out to be.

Dr. Tamkin is an enigmatic character. He is clearly a liar, a fraud and probably a thief. I don’t understand Wilhelm’s fascination with him. But I suppose he uses Dr. Tamkin as a stand-in for his father. Dr. Tamkin constantly spews out an assortment of philosophical musings. It is from one such musing that we get the title of the book,

“Bringing people into the here-and-now. The real universe. That's the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real--the here-and-now. Seize the day.”

There are other key characters who are present in the narrative but we only hear of them through other people. Wilhelm’s wife, his sister, the talent scout Maurice Venice are such characters.

It is astonishing how Bellow paints an amazingly vivid picture of a man’s entire life in little more than a hundred pages. It takes real talent to do that.

At times I felt sorry for Wilhelm. I could actually feel his suffocation. But at the same time I know that he is, for the most part, solely responsible for making a mess of his life. All of his bad decisions have led him to where he is now and even Wilhelm himself knows that.

This is not a happy book and it doesn’t really have a happy ending. The ending is kind of ambiguous. In the end Wilhelm is forced to come face to face with himself. Self realization leads to him breaking down with grief. But even if Wilhelm is not exactly happy and he doesn’t find solutions to his problems, I think he finally stops running away from reality. That counts for something.

Though it is only a short novella it is definitely not a light read. I found Seize the Day to be quite satisfying. It may be a bit gloomy but this is perhaps literature at its best. ( )